The Sony PlayStation 3 received a strong sales boost thanks to two new video games released by Capcom and Sega, which helped Sony outsell the Nintendo Wii for the first time in more than a year.
The PS3 sold 146,948 units in five weeks on the Japanese market, while Nintendo Sold 99,335 units during the same time period. Not surprisingly, the Microsoft Xbox 360 trailed both Japanese companies after selling just 43,172 units.
The impressive sales bump was caused by the release of Yakuza 3 and Resident Evil 5, which are both PS3-exclusive titles not available for other consoles. Both games were the top two video games during the same month in Japan.
Head-to-head in the U.S., Nintendo has sold more than 16 million Wii consoles compared to just 6.3 million PS3s. Despite having superior hardware and a built-in Blu-ray player, consumers have flocked to the Wii, which offers a more physically interactive, family oriented and casual gaming experience.
This is just the boost that Sony has needed, but with many developers flocking to the Xbox 360 and Wii consoles, it should be interesting to see if Sony can woo a few of them back.
